Extreme Geocaching in Pictures (and Video)

Upside-down or right-side-up geocaching can lead you to some heart racing locations.

Geocaching can lead you to see the world in a different way. The symptoms begin early. First you see a location and think, “there could be a geocache right there.” Next you see a a park or a familiar fence line and think, “I’ve found a geocache there.” Finally you see an inspiring location and think, “There should be a geocache there.”

And some geocachers go even further. They see a geocache hide and think, there’s no way I won’t get that. It doesn’t matter that it might mean dangling from a cliff, or climbing a tree or navigating into the darkness of a winter forest.

These are an extreme breed of geocacher. They search for geocaches with a terrain rating of 5. Not only do they enjoy the thrill of turning upside-down or wiggling into a small cave to find a geocache, they also enjoy sharing their geocaching adventures online. Geocaching can be dangerous, so make sure you always take the proper safety precautions. A good example is the final picture of geocachers who brought a guard dog to a mountain top.

Geocaches have difficulty and terrain (D/T) ratings so you can make the decision before you even leave the house. The rating slides from a 1/1, which means the geocache is easy to find in a handicapped accessible area, to a 5/5, which means that after hours of exhausting physical work to get to ground zero involving specialized equipment like a boat, you’re still going to have a hard time finding the geocache. Find more info on the difficulty and terrain ratings.

Below you’ll find images posted to the Geocaching Facebook page of geocaches with terrain ratings of 4 or 5. When you see them, ask yourself, “would I make an attempt to find these geocaches?”

We have some extreme Geocachers in our area – they’ve even got a social network group called extreme Geocachers. It’s great to follow their stories and see their photos
Well done to all those featured here – looks great fun!

GraceThalia

Can you link to the cache page?

s1g

Facepalm to treeclimbing pic. Publishing treeclimbing caches in Germany is a pain, due to possible damge to the tree. (even with proper climbing gear). And Lat 47 is publishing pictures with climbing shoes, the for sure damage the tree? Can’t believe.

Einnorder

This is embarrasing! This type of treeclimbing is causing damage to the tree. How can you publish such things and encourage others to so? I thought geocaching is pro nature? Shame on you!

wpatrickneal

Before everyone gets their knickers in a knot take a good look at those “climbing shoes.” They are not spurs, they don’t penetrate the tree. They appear to be a type of clamp that clamps with the weight of the climber. This action would not harm the tree, particularly a heavy barked tree like the one in the photo. Eric where did you get this picture? The cache that they are trying to grab may give more information. I am guessing those clamps were made just for this cache. A larger concern for me is the lack of a climbing belt that would prevent the climber from falling backward in case he/she lost their grip on the tree.

jackskysegel

I wonder how the birdhouse is attached to the tree.

http://www.facebook.com/dirk.schneider.7165 Dirk Schneider

The first picture does´nt show extreme geocaching, it shows extreme stupidity…
Nice work guys…may the number of imitators be small as possible.
And treeclimbing with clamps??? Groundspeak volunteers in Germany place a lot of stones in the road to publish a T 5 cache where on must use a simple rope!

http://www.facebook.com/dirk.schneider.7165 Dirk Schneider

Yeah…and you must be very proud

Becktracker

Here in Alphen aan den Rijn the Netherlands (AKA Geotopia) we have a very fun series that involves climbing down foot bridges and small bridges. I love this series because it is so much fun to climb down on bridges to hard to reach places. The cache is located usually under the floorboard of the bridge. Sometimes I was climbing and there were people walking above the bridge that had no clue I was under the bridge. Extreme geocaching is so much fun.

http://blog.geocaching.com Eric Schudiske

Good point about the gear. The climbing shoes look like they’re amazing, and custom to this geocache. The picture comes from our Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/austin.pazourek Austin Pazourek

stupidity how? its called having fun dude? why do people have to be such downers geeze.

http://www.facebook.com/austin.pazourek Austin Pazourek

Also nice spelling. it’s ” doesn’t “

http://www.facebook.com/austin.pazourek Austin Pazourek

whats your problem dude?

Attila_G

That may be correct. BUT you have to know that! Otherwise everyone looking at the picture would obviously see spurs… And that’s not good. People are stupid and they just think “oh, that’s the way it to climb a tree, let’s go buy some spurs”.

Geogonzo

G$ is getting more and more stupid… More nails for the GC-Coffin…

Grahame GCookie

I have a D2/T5 cache, 12m off the ground. BUT there is a 11m (x 11mm) permanent rope, tied with a figure-8 loop knot, that allows the cacher to prussik up to the branch below. You then have to adjust yourself over and up to the branch that the cache is actually on, by using another rope. Listed as an OTHER cache, as I have ‘disguised’ an Ovaltine container as a natural beehive with builders foam. It looks at least a REGULAR size, but I can’t put my hand into it.
GC41RZZ, Get High! Naturally! Hive!